Tag Archives: going green

Palm Oil is a vegetable oil derived from the fruit of the African Palm Oil Tree (Elaeis Guineensis), and is found in hundreds of food and body products on the market today. The palm oil tree originated in West Africa, but can be grown in any hot, humid climate. Today almost all of our palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, where huge swathes of rainforest are cleared for it to be planted.

As a direct result of this clearing, animals’ habitats are destroyed, the animals themselves are killed, and ecosystems are thrown out of balance. The fields of Palm Oil Trees that replace the tropical rainforest don’t allow anywhere near the same levels of biodiversity, and the plants and animals that survive the peat-draining, tree-felling and ground-burning must move or die. This includes endangered species such as the orangutan, the Sumatran rhino, the pygmy elephant of Borneo, and the Sumatran tiger. Continue reading →